This invention relates generally to agricultural balers and, in particular, to knotter trip mechanisms for such balers.
In a conventional type of baler, a plunger reciprocates in a bale case to form crop material into rectangular bales. Knotters are provided to tie several strands of twine around the bales, and trip mechanisms are employed for automatically actuating the knotters when bales reach a deired length. Such a trip mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,897,748.
The present invention provides a baler including a bale case, a plunger reciprocating in the bale case, a knotter mounted on the bale case for tying a strand of twine around a bale, and first trip means for preventing operation of the knotter until a bale of predetermined length is formed. The baler also includes second trip means, independent from the first trip means, for preventing operation of the knotter unless the plunger is moving in a direction in the bale case to compress crop material into bales. The second trip means is movable from one position where it can prevent operation of the knotter to another position where it cannot prevent operation of the knotter when the plunger moves in the direction in the bale case to compress crop material into bales.